The invention relates to a page-turning device particularly for use as an aid for handicapped persons to turnover the pages of newspapers, periodicals and music score, which device has a stand and actuating mechanism provided suitably with a bobbin.
According to French patent specification No. 1,121,233, pages are turned over with the aid of magnet-actuated metal wires fitted with rings sliding on an axis wherein the wires are inserted between the pages of a book or musical score on a reading board.
According to French patent specification No. 2,226,285, the pages of a book mounted on a reading board are actuated with arms provided with suction-grip disks.
The common drawback of the above devices is that the page-turning is carried out with a device fitted with a reading board constructed specially for this purpose, and only such pages can be turned over which conform to the dimensions of the reading board which is not separable from the page-turning device in the described devices.
Another fault of the devices according to the above French patent specification No. 2,226,285 is that the suction-grip disk is extremely unreliable and in cases of pages with a coarse surface, or having crinkled or worn pages, it fails.
Both apparatuses require many special parts and their production is expensive. Because of their size they can be used only on a table.
These drawbacks make the use of the above page-turning apparatuses considerably difficult for the intended purpose, and the inextricable difficulties of the arrangement and transportation of the reading boards practically exclude their use in the performing arts.
Apart from the described devices, there are devices which facilitate turning over of pages, especially for musicians.
In English patent specification No. 1,395,168, such a device is disclosed, where in order to facilitate reliably turning the pages over, elements mounted on arms rotatably embedded in a stand are inserted between the pages.
The drawback of this device is that it does not alter at all hand turning of the pages. This represents difficulty for musicians, especially for soloists, since they have to interrupt their play to turn the page over, or the aid of another person is necessary.
In order to eliminate the disadvantages of turning the pages over by hand, a "mechanized" device was worked out according to English patent specification No. 1,257,457, where an arm shaped like the puck of ice-hockey rotatable around the axis of page-turning is embedded in the holder of the music score, which arm is actuated between the two end-positions with a pedal-driven rope. A condition of the page-turning is that separating elements are placed between the pages which in normal position are arranged on the right side in relation to the axis of the page-turning. The arm is guided under each successive page by the separating elements, then upon completion of the page turning, the arm, returned with a spring, turns off the separating element above the page that fulfilled its function and the next one with a hook fixed to the arm.
The drawbacks of the device are that the complicated mechanism requires a specially shaped stand or holder and its operation is extremely noisy. The noise is absolutely inadmissable in case of turning the pages of a music score over and this was the decisive obstacle preventing its general use. The music stand too is complicated and expensive, and the number of pages of the book, music score, etc. to be turned over is limited to the number of the separating elements. Furthermore, as a result of the given structural length of the arm, the size of the page is limited within a narrow range. Apart from this, the device damages the pages and it is not suitable at all for turning back the pages.
The purpose of this invention is to provide a device assembled with simple parts and is suitable for page-turning according to several programs and is manageable by seriously handicapped persons as well.